»09/17/2013VATICAN - SYRIANuncio in Damascus : The victims of chemical warfare and Pope's prayer hasten radical change in SyriaFor Msgr . Mario Zenari , the " innocent victims " and " Pope's prayer " have led to two miracles : armed intervention has been avoided and the decision to destroy Damascus’ chemical weapons. The need to work for a political solution to the conflict. The UN report confirms the use of chemical weapons in Ghouta but says nothing about the responsibility of the attack. United States, Britain and France accuse Assad , Russia states that one can not exclude the responsibility of the rebels.

Damascus (
AsiaNews) - " The victims of the chemical weapons " and "Pope
Francis' prayer" have hastened "a turning point" for "a radical change " in the tragedy
of Syria. So says Msgr
. Mario
Zenari , apostolic nuncio in Damascus, commenting on the publication of a UN
report which confirms the use of chemical weapons in the war that has bloodied
the Syrian soil for over two years.

The experts'
report comes about 4 weeks after the attack on Ghouta , on the outskirts of
Damascus. It was demanded by the International
Community who accuse Bashar Assad of using chemical weapons against his own
people, causing hundreds, if not thousands of deaths, and among them many
children.

Yesterday
evening, the UN secretary general Ban Ki -moon presented the report
drafted by experts and inspectors, concluding that "chemical weapons have
been used on a large scale in the area of ​​Ghouta , near Damascus [ August 21
] . The attack caused many casualties , particularly among civilians". Ban
said that 85% of the blood samples tested positive for sarin . "This
- concluded Ban - is the most significant use of chemical weapons against
civilians since the days of Saddam Hussein, who used them in 1988 at Halabia
."

The
report does not say who is responsible for the attack, because that was not its
mandate . The
United States, Britain and France immediately declared that the "technical
details "mentioned in the report and the scale of the attack lead "without a doubt" to the conclusion
that the chemical weapons were used by the Assad regime .

Russia
, an ally of Syria, through its UN envoy, Vitaly Churkin, rejected this
conclusion , stating that " the allegations that the opposition also use
chemical weapons can not be so easily put aside" . Churkin
also notes that there were no rebels among those who died from the use of
chemical weapons. The
Syrian regime claims its innocence and accuses the armed opposition .

Faced
with this ongoing blame game, Msgr. Zenari
points out: "The
tragedy that occurred on August 21 marks a turning point . It is an alarm
bell that indicates the abyss that we are slipping into. A complete change attitude is needed. If those
innocent victims, those gassed children, help motivate this change, then their
death was not in vain . These innocent victims have to force us to change.
"

"We
received more than we asked for - he says - Two miracles occurred: the first is
that armed military intervention has been avoided for now; the second miracle
is the choice to destroy the chemical weapons , which were a
dangerous threat . The Lord has given us much more than we needed. "

"All
this - he adds - is of immense relief to us, but now is not the time to rest on
our laurels, we must continue to pray to hasten a political solution to the
conflict."

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